The Destiny of Cynder: The Darkest Hour
by GlassSuicune
Summary: "When it will be enough? When will I be enough?" Taking control of one's fate is never as easy as the words might be to say... Cynder now knows more about herself than she ever wanted to know, and now that she's in a world she no longer recognizes... Can she keep the promises she made to herself, to the world? Or will Malefor finally win?


I don't own the Legend of Spyro.

Have I finished A New Hope or its sequel yet? ...Not yet, because of college, but I also didn't want to miss the 10th anniversary of DotD (cutting it close, oof), and Reignited has gotten me excited. So. Here we are for... now.

(I've got more free time to do stuff so I'm going to be working on finishing up A New Hope's edits, hopefully).

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The Mountain of Malefor had fallen, and from the ashes rose a new era of war and desolation. Reborn at long last, Malefor had left the ancient fortress behind, letting it fall into ruin and decay. The Purple Dragon, Cynder, or the Millennial Dragon, depending on who you asked, vanished when the Well of Souls collapsed. With her, the Black Dragon, Spyro, the Oracle, Layru, and Cynder's Dragonfly brother Sparx.

Gone from the world they had been, for many, many long and harsh years. The resistance to Malefor's reign of terror fought valiantly, but without the Purple Dragon, their hope dwindled with each passing day. Cities fell, forests burned, floating islands fell into the earth and the oceans below. Rivers full of blood flowed through wastelands, and yet...

And yet Malefor held back, somehow. Rumours told of his own search for the Purple Dragon and for his own former pawn. And so even a war as lopsided as this one stalled, the forces of good unable to triumph without the Purple Dragon, and the forces of evil unwilling to finish the task at hand _without_ the Purple Dragon and a most faithful servant. And so the bitter battle and searched raged on and on, seemingly without end.

Until today, on the Crimson Night, the moons red as blood against a cold, darkened sky. It was on this day, the Oracles swore, on this day the Guardians had hope that the Purple Dragon would return.

And so began the final chapter of the dragon that became a legend.

#

"I hope the stars are right..." Bianca clutched the book to her chest, listening to the creaking of the wood as the ship sailed across the Sea of Knives. She stayed in the study, below the deck, poring over maps and scrolls to distract herself from the rocking of the ship and the churning of the water... and her stomach.

The pale yellow-furred Rabbit brushed her golden hair out of her blue eyes, pulling her dark violet cloak closer. A chill seeped through the small ship, and crawled down her spine. These were not safe waters to tread, and she tried not to think about how the Sea of Knives had gotten its name. Too many battles, too many fallen…

The Faun rogue, Elora, stood outside the door to the study, Bianca remembered. The Cheetah warrior and the Dragon Knights were either below the deck or on it, watching the sea and helping the Faun crew guide the ship along. If anyone needed something from the study, Elora would tell her. Probably. Elora seemed to have her mind elsewhere.

Bianca turned her attention back to the scrolls and maps. No one on this ship except the Dragons with them had ever met the Purple Dragon or even the Black Dragon with her. Other races like the Rabbits, Fauns, and Cheetahs alive today only had stories to work with. The Rabbits and Fauns had allied with the Dragons many centuries ago, but the Cheetahs did not see the Dragons positively, save for a few like Hunter, who was with them on the ship.

To Bianca, the stories of the Purple Dragons of legend were fascinating, even the stories of Lucifor before he became Malefor. The tragedy of Aeqorcia had stuck with her when she was a child, and now... Well, she had been born after the current Purple Dragon, Cynder, disappeared from the world, but now she'd get a chance to meet her. Would she live up to the stories of the Millennial Dragon, the legendary Purple Dragon, of the Girl Who Fought Monsters? Would Cynder still be a child, much like Bianca herself? Or would she have grown since she disappeared into the aether all those years ago?

A knock on the door tore Bianca from her thoughts, and she looked up as the door opened and Elora walked in. Bianca let the scroll in her hands rest on the table as she greeted her longtime friend with a smile. "Have you news for me, Elora?"

"We're about to reach the shore, or so Hunter tells me," Elora answered, looking at Bianca's mess of scrolls and maps sprawled across the table and the floor, most of them having fallen from their meager shelves. "I see you've kept yourself busy. Not much for the sea, eh?"

"I prefer dry land, thanks for asking," Bianca couldn't help but roll her eyes in a rather petulant manner. She hadn't quite gotten used to Elora's teasing, even if there was no malice attached to it. She forced herself to smile in spite of herself. "But that's... good news."

A pang of anxiety stabbed at every last nerve, and she hoped Elora didn't notice. As they had seen in the Shattered Vale, the places surrounding the Well of Souls had fallen into ruin, overrun by the forces of Malefor and wraiths of evil-doers past.

She feared a great many things from it.

If they were wrong, and the Purple Dragon along with her companions were truly gone from the world, then they would've risked life and limb, and wasted the lives of others, for a false ember of hope. She didn't want to entertain that idea, didn't want to accept, but a part of her already began bracing herself for the disappointment and despair that seemed all too inevitable.

"Hunter and the Knights are talking over what we're gonna do when we get there, which, you know, is soon," Elora continued, and though her voice sounded dry as the deserts that Fire Dragons and Earth Dragons often lived in, Bianca could tell she was just as worried. Elora cleared her throat. "Much as none of us here likes it, we're probably going to have to split our resources a bit. The crew may be trained fighters, but they don't feel safe without at least a few of the Knights staying behind in case of... Well, moons, who even knows what's out there?"

"I'm sure I've got plenty of theories, not a single one of them pleasant or what you want to hear," Bianca murmured, looking at her scrolls once more, but not reaching for one. She'd read enough. "But I can't say that I blame the crew. They only signed up for so much, and I'd be afraid of coming back to find the ship gone... I'm still afraid that might happen, actually."

"Whatever the case might be, Bianca, we still gotta get ready," Elora shrugged. She looked at her iron cuffs and clinked them together. The ship seemed to slow, and she knew Bianca noticed it too. She placed her hand on the wall and braced herself. "Get up on the deck, and... You know. Just be prepared for anything. We need to be ready to fight at a moment's notice."

Bianca clutched her wand with one hand and held her spell book to her chest with the other. She stood up and followed Elora to the deck, meeting with Hunter and the Dragon Knights, the ship's captain and crew tossing the anchor and steadying the ship. She looked past them and at the collapsed mountain, and at the desolate wasteland it rested within. Her stomach continued to churn just as much as the water did. Could they really do this? Could _she_ do this?

"Are we ready?" Bianca asked, noticing the Dragon Knights split into two groups. In the group that walked over to her side: Captain Ormhildur, old and battle-scarred, with her trusted allies, Flavius and Vanitas, both of whom who looked just as old and worn as she did. Two younger Knights, an Electric Dragon named Thundus and a Wind Dragon named Spirit, joined them. Bianca supposed it was as good a team as any.

The second group, which stood with the Faun crew, had Phasma, another old ally of Ormhildur's, as the de facto leader. Fulgur and Petra stood by her sides, younger than her but older than the final two Knights, Venom and Zilla, raised by Layru until King Gaul captured her. Bianca thought it sad they would have to wait longer to see Layru again.

"The ship and its crew will be in capable talons," Ormhildur announced, stepping towards the edge of the ship and spreading out her wings. Flavius, Vanitas, Thundus, and Spirit followed her lead, and all Bianca, Elora, and Hunter could do was follow on the ground, unable to fly. Ormhildur turned her head to look at them. "I trust Phasma with my life. Now... Let us be off."

There was an eagerness in Ormhildur's old voice that Bianca couldn't ignore, as the Dragons leapt and glided down to the craggy field, waiting for their wingless companions to join them below. Ormhildur was ready to see her son and the girl she took in as her own daughter again, and Bianca couldn't fault her for that.

Hunter and Elora jumped first. Bianca suffered a moment's hesitation, but eventually followed them, leaving the crew and the other half of the Knights behind. It had been a small force to begin with, the purpose of this mission was really, truly stealth... but she hated to cut their already meager force into two smaller pieces.

"I will scout ahead," Vanitas announced after they had walked a few feet away from the ship. She spread out her wings and took to the skies, surrounding herself in a bubble of Void energy acted as a shield that also made her difficult to see. Bianca watched her fly ahead, and then let her eyes fall back to Ormhildur at the front of the land-bound group. Around them, skeletons of Apes, Trolls, and Ogres lie sprawled across the landscape, a sure omen.

The Knights on the ground kept Bianca, Hunter, and Elora boxed in, Bianca couldn't help but notice. Ormhildur walked in front, Thundus walked at their right, Spirit at their left, and Flavius walked behind them, with Vanitas circling around them and watching the lands they couldn't see. It helped Bianca feel safer, or rather, as safe as she could feel while walking upon the land Malefor had cursed. One Dragon. One Dragon caused all of this.

Dragons were not like the other creatures of the world, not like the Rabbits, the Fauns, the Cheetahs, the Moles, or even the Dragons' relatives, the Wyverns. By virtue of being born as they were, Dragons had access to powers that other peoples could only describe as godly. Where the Wyverns could only exhale a brief stream of fire when physical condition was right, the Dragons could form flames around their claws and call upon starfire, and they could master Elements beyond Fire.

Races like the Rabbits, the Fauns, the Cheetahs, the Llamas, and the Centaurs, to name a few, were not much different from the Apes, Biance noted as twigs snapped underfoot. Like the Apes, they had to harness the Elemental powers of the world through objects, such as a wand or a staff. Natural Elemental affinity was a privilege denied to them, but yet she supposed in a way, their lack of such power was a strength.

The Dragons were gifted, that much was true. And their history had been consumed by wars and then by prophecies of more wars, because it would seem, great power always corrupted in the end. And they had always dragged the other races into their wars, from the ruthless conquests of the Light Dragons that enslaved those other races and nearly drove the Dark Dragons to extinction, and to the war that the entire world had been in since the death of Lucifor and the birth of Malefor.

The Purple Dragon... Bianca wasn't sure what she herself would do with the amount of power that single Dragon had. The Silver Dragon that fought with them before they left the mainland on their journey to the former Well of Souls, was an impressive soul as it was. But he was locked to the Elements of Light, as the Black Dragon she would also meet was locked to the Elements of Darkness. Powerful they might have been, their power was limited.

But not the Purple Dragon. No, the Purple Dragon did better than the Silver Dragon and the Black Dragon combined. The Purple Dragon had every Element, every piece of Aether, and could even master Time, an Element of one Dragon.

To say nothing of the powers that the Purple Dragon possessed that were, as far as the rest of the world knew, inaccessible by all other beings. The Purple Dragon was a creature of unlimited potential... and as they possessed the capability for good, so too did they possess a capability for the greatest of evils.

It was too much power, Bianca thought, for a single being to have. She wouldn't want to have it, she'd rather have her books and wand that she could set aside at any time, instead of the power raging inside her, consuming her mind, body, and soul. Yes, she'd rather everything special about her be trapped in carved wood and within written word.

Their trek to the mountain had little to see besides the skeletons and little to do except flinch at every little sound, but she supposed that was better than encountering the monsters that were said to lurk the land after the Night of Eternal Darkness all those years ago...

She knew the monsters were out there, had heard their cries, had felt the rumble in the earth from their movements, and yet, she and her companions saw no sign of them, not even a glance at Malefor's own forces, who they all knew were bound to be searching this area as well. Everyone knew what was at stake, whoever got to the Purple Dragon first would win the war. Well, so it was believed. Malefor seemed to desire the Purple Dragon for his own reasons, and no one had told Bianca what, only that they were terrible things that could end the entire world more than it already had been.

"No signs of... anything, nothing except the remains of those who didn't get away," Vanitas said when she landed in front of them, at the entrance to the former fortress. Vanitas looked around behind the group for good measure. "I do _not_ like how quiet it seems to be. It's not right, not natural. There are dark tidings in the air... Malefor's forces should be here soon."

"Then we should make it quick, don't you think?" Hunter commented, brushing a bit of dust off of his cloak. Despite the gravity of their situation, Hunter still managed to look at Vanitas with the same type of awe he looked at all Dragons with. "I have... a lot of questions to ask, but I can ask when we're back on the ship.

Bianca still found that a bit odd, how fascinated Hunter was with the Dragons. It certainly wasn't a trait that Cheetahs tended to have, and one that had gotten Hunter cast out of his tribe. And yet he still remained fascinated, eagerly listening to tales of Dragons past and studying the Spirit Gems and all other things Dragon.

The inside of the old fortress wasn't what Bianca was expecting, but then she had to ask herself what she was expecting in the first place. It was a mess, that much could be expected, littered with broken statues, armour, weapons, and pieces of stone brick. Entire corridors had caved in, bridges collapsed, and she thought she saw remnants of the dead crushed by the debris. She wondered why Malefor hadn't reclaimed it all, but she supposed the despair of the place was too much even for him. Or, more likely, it had simply served its purpose.

But it was the throne room that caught her eye by the time they reached it, awakening emotions within her that she didn't know she had. It was a twisted, broken heap of metal, stone and bone, yes, but that wasn't what was important to her. No, what caught her was the crystalline wall of gold in the center of all the gray and black. A light in the darkness, a sword of hope to cut through the fog of despair.

Encased in the gold crystal, was the Purple Dragon, her wings outstretched to wrap around the Black Dragon, around her Dragonfly brother, and around the Oracle. Frozen in time, and yet it was obvious to everyone standing there that the Purple Dragon and Black Dragon had both aged considerably, having somehow reached the prime of adulthood while trapped inside the crystal. The Dragonfly and the Oracle, meanwhile, didn't seem to have aged a day.

"I can't believe it's really them," Elora said before Bianca had the chance to, staring at the three Dragons and even the tiny Dragonfly in awe. Before her, legends stood, made real and offering a taste of hope in a world where that was in short supply. "Look at them... How are they even alive in there?"

"It has been so long since I have seen them..." Vanitas breathed, stepping forward to get a closer look at the people trapped in the crystal. "But we can't just smash it. That crystal is made out of Time magic. A mere club won't be able to break it, if the collapse of the Well and the fortress could only form itself around it."

"Then what can?" Bianca asked, taking a step closer to it and taking in its golden light. A sliver of doubt crept into her mind, much as she wanted to ignore it. Did they really come here for nothing? All that time spent in fear of the creatures in the deep and the monsters in the valley, and for nothing?

"All we can do is hope that they hear our plea and break free," Ormhildur said after a moment, eyes on the Black Dragon in particular, and then to the Purple Dragon. She looked like she wanted to reach out and touch them both, to pull them to her body and conceal them from the world with her wings.

Unbidden, Bianca strode towards the imprisoned Dragons and Dragonfly, locked in a trance of dubious origin. She placed a single hand on the crystal, muttering prayers and cobbled together spells to herself. She expected nothing, but she hoped for everything. Though it stood right in front of her, salvation seemed as far away as ever. But she couldn't give up, not now, not ever, not when they were so close. She needed to see them...

And then she heard a crack, and she opened her eyes, gasping and stepping back as fractures snaked across the crystal, golden light seeping through the cracks. She heard echoing voices. Screams, shouts, cries of fear and despair. Is this what they felt in those moments before the crystal encased them?

And then it all burst. Shards of crystal and beams of light flew out, everyone's vision turning pale gold for the moment. And when their vision cleared, before them stood the Purple Dragon, the Black Dragon, and the lost Oracle, with the Dragonfly hovering behind them. It was like something out of a child's tale, of a storyteller's theatrics, of the legends shown in scrolls and murals, passed down generation after generation.

And for the moment, Bianca felt what she was sure everyone else was feeling: True hope.


End file.
